UKC

Since the last news item on December 30, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson have made great progress on their Dawn wall-project and are now mid crux.
So far, it's going even better than anyone could expect, with both an ~8c and the first ~9a traverse pitch under their belt (they're sharing a belt)....

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69408

In reply to UKC News:

Even although it's clearly impossible it's looking like they are actually going to do it. Certainly grounds for optimism. The weather's looking pretty good too. It might even be too warm on Monday!

In reply to JLS:
If they are spending such a long time on the wall, are people bringing them food and water and such like?

In reply to snoop6060:

Yes, I just read about that in one of Tom Evans' El Cap reports.

In reply to UKC News:

How come all the hardest pitches are being "sent" in the dark?

In reply to JLS:
I'm a bit confused as to the style of this ascent. It would seem to me that they intend to do something in between the Skinner/Piana Salathe 'team free' style and the now more accepted style where one person leads every pitch free. From looking at Tom Evans's commentary and photos we see TC leading a pitch free and then KJ seconding it free, and then swinging leads for the next pitch. Basically climbing as a normal pair would climb a long route. Is this a reasonable summary?

As for the night climbing, maybe they're just running out of daylight? It's not like they need the temperatures to cool down - it's already very cold and they're on the east side of El Cap and so in the shade in the afternoon anyway.

In reply to jon:

I'm guessing they'll be happy swinging leads on the easier pitches but for satisfaction I expect they'd both want to lead the hard pitches if they can. I think so long as every pitch is lead by one of the team and also seconded where two leads weren't possible you've got to pat them on the back. Something so epic was never going to be first done with the rock ethics that might be applied to an HVS at Stannage. I think we can forgive a bit of supplies restocking if it becomes necessary to get it done.

In reply to JLS:
Some epic photos here: http://www.elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-112015-special-dawn-wall-ed...
Check out the tick marks...

In reply to jon:

Haven't been following this so much - but it is an incredible achievement on a fabulous piece of rock, regardless of what people think about the "style" / "professional climber" thing. And is all positive publicity for the sport. Great pictures too, really bringing out the rock texture

In reply to JJL:
Temperature. El Cap is a bit of a pain for really hard free climbing as it's in the sun a lot of the time. It may be January, but in the sun it's still pretty warm - far too warm to do really sharp crimpy technical vertical wall climbing without tearing your skin to shreds. Within (pretty ridiculous) limits, for that kind of climbing, the colder the better. So even out of the sun, it seems they are waiting to after dark for optimal conditions (not particularly unusual in the bouldering world.) Arguably, one of the main reasons that this ascent is now finally happening, is that they've figured out that you can free climb on El Cap in January without being taken out by ice avalanches...

(They started off trying it in October - the normal time of year for free climbing in the autumn (which works fine on stuff up to around Fr8b, especially on cracks etc), and each season they've tried it progressively later and later in the year until now they've finally realised that it's o.k to climb on there in mid winter - as long as you get a decent weather window and there isn't too much melting snow above your head!)